Unified Location &amp; Presence, Communication Across Real and Virtual Worlds

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing unified location and presence information of and intercommunication among a plurality of networked users is disclosed, where the users may be real world people or virtual world personae. Generally, after receiving data representative of both a first and second user&#39;s presence or location in the real or a virtual world over a communications network, the users are permitted to view each other&#39;s presence in a virtual network. The users are identified by endpoint addresses, and may intercommunicate using various types of media via the communications network.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to communication networks, and more particularly, to a method and devices for providing a unified location, presence and inter-communication experience among a plurality of networked users that may be real-world or within virtual worlds.

BACKGROUND

Telecommunications and information-sharing (e.g., presence and location) concepts, services and underlying technology in the real world are well known. There are also virtual worlds in which people participate as virtual entities, along with methods of communication between virtual entities within a given virtual world for sharing information. Increasingly, individuals participate in virtual world systems as well as the real world. Intercommunication and information sharing across the real and virtual worlds can be useful. For example, a real-world x-ray could be delivered to a doctor's virtual entity practicing a medical procedure in a surgery simulation virtual world; or a mother could text her son's avatar that it's time to come home for dinner while he is role-playing in a virtual world over at a friend's house; or a granddaughter's virtual entity could video-share with her grandmother her latest living room layout in a home decorating virtual world; or a virtual entity active in one virtual world could be conferenced in with virtual entities from other virtual worlds to discuss or demonstrate martial arts techniques; or real world person Terry could share with his friends that he is currently role-playing as Avatar X in a specific virtual world and is in Chamber 3 of Level 9 so that they might join him there with their avatars.

It would therefore be advantageous to provide a system and methodology that provides a services environment that comprehensively addresses presence, location and media (voice, video, texting, etc.) across real and virtual worlds, and that can be known in either communication between personae in real and virtual worlds or between personae in virtual worlds.

SUMMARY

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for providing at least one of presence and location information and media communication over a communications network between a plurality of networked users is disclosed. The method comprises receiving data representative of at least one of a first user's presence and location over the communications network and data representative of at least one of a second user's presence and location over the communications network. An environment is generated for the first user and the second user to merge the at least one of the first user and second user's presence and location in a virtual world, the environment enabling the users to view each other's presence and location data over the communications network as either virtual personas with respect to each other or as virtual/real personas with respect to each other, and the environment enabling such users to communicate with each other through various media.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided at least one server coupled to a communications network, comprising at least one module and at least one processor for executing machine executable instructions encoded in a memory medium which, when executed by the at least one processor enable a sharing of at least one of virtual presence and location information between a plurality of networked users over the communications network. The server(s) are operable to receive data representative of at least one of a first user's presence and location over the communications network and data representative of at least one of a second user's presence and location over the communications network. An environment is generated for the first user and the second user to merge the at least one of the first user and second user's presence and location in a virtual world. The environment enables the users to view each other's presence and location data over the communications network as either virtual personas with respect to each other, or as virtual/real personas with respect to each other. The server(s) are further adapted for rendering a media presentation for the first user to communicate with the second user over the communications network, the presentation adapted for a respective media channel on which each user communicates over the network.

These aspects of the disclosure and further advantages thereof will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the present disclosure is described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level schematic diagram of a first embodiment of a system of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary computer system for implementing the functionality of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing figures wherein like numbers represent like elements throughout. Before embodiments of the disclosure are explained in detail, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of the examples set forth in the following description or illustrated in the figures. The disclosure is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in a variety of applications and in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having” and variations thereof herein are meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

FIG. 1 is a high level schematic of a first illustrative embodiment of a network 100 for implementing aspects of the present disclosure. Reference numeral 102 represents a first network access device (NAD), such as a traditional land-line telephone, i.e., Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), or a mobile telephone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), i.e., Palm®, Blackberry®, or the like. These devices may utilize a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or other multimedia (MMS) signaling protocol commonly utilized for controlling multimedia communications sessions. A circuit or packet switched network 104—such as a Telecom Service Provider/Network Operator network—includes an Application Server (AS) 106 and connects NAD 102 via SIP over a Broadband Internet Protocol (IP) connection, such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable, Fiber Optic, copper, Wi-Fi or WiMax or any other method hereinbefore utilized or that may be developed hereinafter for network access.

A Presence/Location (P/L) server 108 is configured with appropriate hardware, firmware and/or software to provide an “environment” where virtual and real worlds are comingled for networked users. In this regard server 108 is adapted to receive and process information from virtual and real-world software applications and end-points. Switching/access network 104 communicates with the P/L server 108 via the SIP or other protocol. Reference numeral 110 represents Virtual World (VW1) resources, which in an illustrative embodiment comprises a Gateway (GWa) 112, Gateway (GWb) 114 and Virtual World (VW) Application 116. VW application 116 may be further comprised of Presence and Location Software (P/LS) 118 and External Rendering Software (ERS) 120. This application is advantageously adapted to confer functionality that (a) provides a networked user's presence/location to P/L server 108 corresponding to virtual participant(s), (b) supports communications with real networks and virtual world software program(s) and (c) supports communications with an internal virtual “persona” as an endpoint. Additionally, VW application 116 can be configured to facilitate session establishment (e.g., voice calls), addressing, and routing to real networks and virtual world software connecting real and virtual personae; including virtual-to-virtual connections. VW1 resources 110 couples to network 104, P/L server 108 and a Wide Area Network (WAN) 122 via SIP/DSL, SIP and Internet Protocol/Gigabit Ethernet (IP/GigE), respectively. WAN 122 enables a plurality of NADs to connect to the system, such as a laptop computer characterized by reference numeral 124.

The following is an implementation of the above-described exemplary embodiment. An avatar representation (e.g., “HeroGuy”) in virtual world 1 (VW1), for example Second Life, would like to advertise his presence and location information in the virtual world as “HeroGuy”, along with presence and location information in the real world as himself “Jack Doe”. Others, in real or virtual worlds, would be able to learn of the presence and location and even communicate with “HeroGuy” in VW1, or even join “HeroGuy” at his location in VW1.

More specifically and continuing with particular reference to FIG. 1, a “real world” network user—e.g., Jack Doe—has logged into VW1 via laptop 124 as HeroGuy@VW1.com and utilizes VW1 resources 110. VW software 116, in accordance with the “HeroGuy” user profile, instructs the system to place Presence/Location information for Jack Doe in P/L Server 108 as part of Jack Doe's overall presence/location information in the virtual world.

When another real world network user, e.g., “Mary” desires to contact Jack, for example, via a multimedia SIP connection from her NAD 102, Mary initiates a multimedia ‘call’ using Jack's global address (e.g., 677-456-7890). Network 104 receives Mary's call request, which is handled by AS 106 that queries P/L server 108 to check Jack's “whereabouts.” The P/L server 108 then determines that Jack can be reached at HeroGuy@VW1.com. In this connection, Jack's user profile/screening criteria (as, say, stored in the AS 106) permits Mary (Mary@att.com) to reach him at HeroGuy@VW1.com. Network 104 establishes a multimedia call to the called endpoint (VW1 resources/GWa) 112. Through VW1 GWa 112, VW software 116 detects an incoming call, specifically for HeroGuy@VW1.com and recognizes that it is a request for a multimedia call, so the ERS 120 can then execute to render an appropriate video+audio image to VW1 GWa 112. HeroGuy's VW1 user profile may influence the video+audio image that is presented to Mary—e.g., it may be the sights and sounds of what HeroGuy is experiencing in VW1, or it might be a completely different audio/visual presentation that is only to be specifically provided to external callers. Likewise, ERS 120 can be configured to provide a multimedia presentation of Mary to HeroGuy in any desired and user-customized fashion.

It will appreciated by those skilled in the art that the users can communicate via different media in a conventional manner. In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, real world and virtual world users can intercommunicate over the communications network and into/out of virtual worlds, where real or virtual users are identified by addressing information and where addresses could be of the same sort for both real and virtual users—e.g., E.164 numbers, or sip addresses or http addresses, etc.

In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, locations in virtual and real worlds may be merged within the system. For example, “Jack” may actually be located in New York City, as determined by, for example, his computer's IP address, or by data from the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) associated with his network access device, or a separate device, or by mobile telephone locating technologies, or the like. Similarly, HeroGuy@VW1.com may actually be located in Chamber 3 of Level 9 of VW1. Thus, these users are enabled to view each other's respective location in the real and virtual worlds.

In alternative embodiments, virtual-virtual, virtual-real and real-real world communication scenarios are possible. For example, “WonderWoman” (Mary's virtual persona, not shown in FIG. 1), may wish to communicate with “HeroGuy” in a virtual-virtual world session. Similarly, “HeroGuy” may wish to communicate with “Mary” in a virtual-real world session, or “Jack” may wish to communicate with “Mary” in a conventional real-real session. Communications may be comprised of an exchange of voice, text, video, or other multimedia, and may include presence and/or location information, as permitted by user-specified profile permissions.

In another embodiment, P/L server 108 can be disposed within a specific network operator's domain, or it could be some federated system.

In yet another embodiment, a plurality of service networks may be employed as will be appreciated by those skilled in telecommunications. It is unnecessary for “Mary” and “Jack” to be customers of the same network.

In yet another embodiment, the address for the VW persona can be a POTS address served by VW1, instead of a SIP URL.

In yet another embodiment, contact permissions may be included with the Presence/Location function.

In yet another alternative embodiment, a virtual world persona can also ‘call out’ to a real person or to another persona in a different virtual world. A virtual persona could also have its presence/location information distinct from the real world user. For example, P/L Server 108 could list HeroGuy@VW1.com as a separate entry apart from JackDoe@att.com.

In addition, communications may encompass typical real world implementations, such as including but not limited to voice, video, MMS, short message service (SMS) texting, twittering, email, etc. Real and virtual world users may be conferenced together by existing conferencing capabilities in circuit or packet switched networks.

The following are definitions, descriptions, and clarifications (not limitations) of the present disclosure:

Virtual worlds—software-based alternative worlds (e.g. Second Life, Disney Toontown or the like), multi-player internet games, chat rooms, simulation environments, etc.—anything where a participant may have a virtual identity for which presence/location and/or communication is relevant.

Options for user-user communication—voice or video sessions, texting, email, RSS feeds, content sharing (still pictures, files, and so on), video-share, etc., as relevant for the capabilities of any particular virtual world as well as the real world. Communication may be point-to-point two-party, or conference multi-party, or broadcast multi-party or other configurations.

Opportunities for communication mode of presentation in a virtual world could be selected by the participant according to options supported within any given virtual world—; e.g. for voice call, it could simply come over audio, or could ring a phone in the virtual world; or a text message could be presented as text banner on the screen, or show up on a mobility device in the virtual world, or appear as (e.g.) skywriting or on a billboard; or video could show up on a TV screen in the virtual world or in a crystal ball there.

Sharing of information and opportunities to communicate may be made subject to user permissions and in accordance with network security protocols and policies as desired.

If a participant is to ‘join’ a virtual persona at its location in a virtual world—as another virtual persona, there may be an expedited way for that connection to take place, which can be made automated by virtue of the networked user simply joining the virtual world, thereby obviating the need to manually supply location coordinates.

Inter-virtual and real-virtual world communications do not necessarily require that the originating party belong as a member to the virtual world of the target virtual persona. Moreover, the communications aspect may include other known forums such as blogging, twitter, RSS feeds, and the like.

A presence/location server does not necessarily have to be a single monolithic piece of equipment. It may be distributed in nature. As one alternative, a given VW may keep its own presence/location information for its own virtual world personae, which may be queried by other presence/location servers, based on the address/identity of the entity whose presence/location information is being sought.

In another implementation, the presentation of the virtual persona can pair information to that of the real-world user associated therewith. In this manner, a user can request real world location information of the user who is manipulating the virtual persona in the virtual world. For example, a participant may be playing a character in a virtual world located in Florida, but he or she is actually located in Montana. A request through the system for the real-world location can generate a display of the same in the virtual world by pairing this information to that associated with the virtual persona.

The present disclosure may be implemented using hardware, firmware, software or any combination thereof, and may be implemented in one or more computer systems and/or other processing systems. FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary computer environment characterized by the reference numeral 200 that can be used as a network access device or a server to implement the functionality of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer system 200 may operate as a server that is networked to other computers (network access devices) to operate as a client/server system, as known by those skilled in the art, or computer 200 may operate as a standalone system. Computer system 200 includes one or more processors, such as processor 204. Processor 204 is connected to a communication infrastructure 206 (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, or network). Computer system 200 can include a display interface 202 (e.g. a graphics card) that allows graphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure 206 (or from a frame buffer not shown) to be displayed on a display unit 230. Computer system 200 also includes a main memory 208, preferably random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 210. The secondary memory 210 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 212 and/or a removable storage drive 214. The removable storage drive 214 has read/write functionality onto removable storage media 218 having stored therein computer software and/or data. In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 210 may include other similar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 200. Such devices may include, for example, a removable storage unit 222 and an interface 220. Examples of such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 222 and interfaces 220, which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 222 to computer system 200. Computer system 200 may also include a communications interface 224 allowing software and data to be transferred between computer system 200 and external devices. Examples of communications interface 224 may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and data transferred via communications interface 224 are in the form of signals (not shown), which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being received by communications interface 224. These signals are provided to communications interface 224 via a communications path (e.g., channel) 226. This path 226 carries the signals and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radio frequency (RF) link and/or other communications channels. Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) are stored in main memory 208 and/or secondary memory 210. Computer programs may also be received via communications interface 224. Computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 200 to perform the features of the present disclosure, as discussed herein. Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of the computer system 200. In an embodiment where the disclosure is implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 200 using removable storage drive 214, hard drive 212, or communications interface 224. The control logic (software), when executed by the processor 204, causes the processor 204 to perform the functions of the disclosure as described herein. In another embodiment, the disclosure is implemented primarily in hardware using, for example, hardware components, such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware state machine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s). In one exemplary embodiment, the system for the present disclosure may be implemented, for example, as a Microsoft.net® desktop application program (Microsoft.net® is made by Microsoft® Corporation of Redmond, Wash.), which may reside on a computer hard drive, database or other repository of data, or be uploaded from the Internet or other network (e.g., from a PC, minicomputer, mainframe computer, microcomputer, telephone device, PDA, or other network access device having a processor and input and/or output capability). Any available software tool capable of implementing the concepts described herein may be used to implement the system and method of the present disclosure. The method and system of the present disclosure may also be implemented as an application-specific add-on to a program, or as a standalone application.

The above-described methods may be implemented by program modules that are executed by a computer, as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, objects, components, data structures and the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The term “program” as used herein may connote a single program module or multiple program modules acting in concert. The disclosure may be implemented on a variety of types of computers, including personal computers (PCs), hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. The disclosure may also be employed in distributed computing environments, where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

An exemplary processing module for implementing the methodology above may be hardwired or stored in a separate memory that is read into a main memory of a processor or a plurality of processors from a computer readable medium such as a ROM or other type of hard magnetic drive, optical storage, tape or flash memory. In the case of a program stored in a memory media, execution of sequences of instructions in the module causes the processor to perform the process steps described herein. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software and the computer program code required to implement the foregoing can be developed by a person of ordinary skill in the art.

The term “computer-readable medium” as employed herein refers to any machine encoded medium that provides or participates in providing instructions to the processor. Such a medium includes but is not limited to non-volatile media, volatile media and transmission media. For example, non-volatile media can include optical or magnetic memory disks. Volatile media include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes the main memory. Common expedients of computer-readable media are well-known in the art and need not be described in detail here.

The foregoing detailed description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scope of the disclosure disclosed herein is not to be determined from the description of the disclosure, but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principles of the present disclosure and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. 

1. A method comprising: receiving first location data associated with a first location of a first communication device over a communications network at a server; receiving second location data associated with a second location of a second communication device over the communications network at the server; receiving first virtual location data associated with a first user of the first communication device over the communications network at the server, wherein the first virtual location data represents a first position of a first avatar in a virtual world generated by computer instructions, wherein the first avatar represents the first user; receiving second virtual location data associated with a second user of the second communication device over the communications network at the server, wherein the second virtual location data represents a second position of a second avatar in the virtual world generated by the computer instructions, wherein the second avatar represents the second user, wherein the first user is provided with the second location of the second communication device and the second position of the second avatar via the first avatar, and wherein the second user is provided with the first location of the first communication device and the first position of the first avatar via the second avatar.
 2. The method according to claim 1, comprising providing voice communication between the first and second communication devices.
 3. The method according to claim 2, graphically representing the voice communication between the first and second communication devices in the virtual world.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second location data are comprises global positioning system data.
 5. The method according to claim 1, comprising: receiving first presence information associated with the first user over the communications network at the server; and receiving second presence information associated with the second user over the communications network at the server.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first and second users communicate over the communications network using at least one of short message service and multimedia messaging service and utilizing user devices determined from the first and second presence information.
 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first and second users communicate over the communications network via video conference and utilizing user devices determined from the first and second presence information.
 8. A server comprising: a memory medium; and a processor for executing machine executable instructions encoded in the memory medium which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive first location data associated with a first location of a first communication device; receive second location data associated with a second location of a second communication device; determine a first position of a first avatar in a virtual world, wherein the virtual world is generated by computer instructions, and wherein the first avatar represents a first user of the first communication device; determine a second position of a second avatar in the virtual world, wherein the second avatar represents a second user of the second communication device; provide the first user with the second location of the second communication device and the second position of the second avatar via the first avatar; and provide the second user with the first location of the first communication device and the first position of the first avatar via the second avatar. 9-17. (canceled)
 18. The server according to claim 8, wherein the first and second locations are obtained based on a voice communication session between the first and second communication devices.
 19. The server according to claim 18, wherein the processor is programmed to graphically represent the voice communication between the first and second communication devices in the virtual world.
 20. The server according to claim 8, wherein the first and second location data comprise global positioning system data.
 21. The server according to claim 8, wherein the processor is programmed to: receive first presence information associated with the first user; and receive second presence information associated with the second user.
 22. The server according to claim 21, wherein the first and second users communicate over a communications network using at least one of short message service and multimedia messaging service and utilizing user devices determined from the first and second presence information.
 23. The server according to claim 21, wherein the first and second users communicate over a communications network via video conferencing and utilizing user devices determined from the first and second presence information.
 24. The server according to claim 8, wherein the first and second locations are obtained based on activity of a voice communication session between the first and second communication devices, and wherein a virtual environment associated with the second avatar is audibly presented to the first communication device via the voice communication session.
 25. The server according to claim 8, wherein the first and second locations are based on a communication session between the first and second communication devices, and wherein an environment associated with the second avatar is presented to the first communication device via the communication session.
 26. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions to: receive voice communication data from a first communication device associated with a first user; generate an avatar in a virtual world for presentation at a second communication device associated with a second user, wherein the avatar represents the second user, and wherein the virtual world is generated by computer instructions; and present the voice communication data in the virtual world to the avatar, wherein the voice communication data is presented by way of at least one of text and an audible message; obtain virtual communication data from the second user utilizing the second communication device, wherein the voice communication data is obtained via interaction between the second user and the avatar; and provide the virtual communication data to the first communication device.
 27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 26, comprising computer instructions to provide the virtual communication data to the first communication device as a voice communication, wherein the first communication device is a mobile device.
 28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 26, comprising computer instructions to: receive a location of the first communication device; determine a position of the avatar in the virtual world; provide the first communication device with the position of the avatar; and present at the second communication device the location of the first communication device via the avatar.
 29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 26, comprising computer instructions to: provide media content for presentation by the first communication device, wherein the media content represents a virtual environment associated with the avatar, and wherein the media content is to be presented by the first communication device in conjunction with the virtual content data. 